Summer 2012 1918 A R T O F T H E T I M E S w w w. a r t o f t h e t i m e s . c o m

he women artists in this stunning

exhibition demonstrate the role of

women in the current ascendency of

contemporary Japanese ceramics around

the world. It focuses on how their relationships to

France have influenced and enabled the five artists

who are show-cased in this exhibition to find their

unique voices. Stifled at one time or another by

Japan’s restrictive view on the role of women and the

lack of freedoms with regard to their career choices,

especially in the arena of ceramics, these

committed female artists have successfully

overturned such national limitations by choosing to

train, study, and work abroad, particularly in Paris.

By maintaining professional and personal contacts

with both countries, they have managed to succeed

in ways unavailable to their male colleagues. The

artists, Futamora Yoshimi, Katsumata Chieko,

Nagasawa Setsuko, Ogawa Machiko and Sakurai

Yasuko, have each come to this life-style via varied

routes, some working exclusively in France while

others have studios in both countries and still

another works exclusively in Kyoto after years of

working in Limoges. Spanning two generations,

these artists reflect the changes occurring both in

Japan and in the field of ceramics internationally.

All are clearly pioneers, especially when viewed

from an historical perspective.

These five women are masters of their medium.

Perhaps because they are women artists in the

overtly masculine world of Japanese clay, they are

able to shed the heavy mantle of tradition and

explore the art of clay in startling new and

independent ways, with a special eloquence and

strength dramatically and uniquely their own. These

women are not merely confronting tradition but are

rather seeking to expose the very essence of clay,

exploiting its flexibility and suppleness in arresting

ways. Some of these artists flaunt the limitations of

their medium and perceive it as a challenge while

others defy it altogether. As a result, they are in the

vanguard of the development of Japanese ceramics

in what is certainly one of this medium’s richest and

most diverse periods in its long history. (The oldest

ceramics in the history of the world were made in

Japan, making it the culture with the longest history

of molding clay on the planet).

Women have traditionally played only a minor

role in Japan’s long history in clay. Many male

ceramists, particularly eldest sons, begin their

ceramic education at a young age at the knees of

their fathers, as the next in a long line of potters

working in a particular tradition. Until quite recently,

this line of succession was unavailable to women. In

part this has been due to the view that ceramics are

the embodiment of the quasi-religious Asian belief

in the five fundamental elements of life: water,

earth, metal, wood and fire. Since women were long

considered to be impure, they were not permitted to

even touch a kiln. Hence, over the past few

centuries, their role fell to that of organizer and

administrator of her husbands’ or fathers’ studios—

very distant from the art of creation.

Only with the post-war generation did women

begin to challenge these circumscribed roles and

social barriers, and begin to emerge as independent

artists. In fact, nowhere in the field of Japanese art

has there been as dramatic a change as the recent

shift actually in favor of Japanese women ceramists

in this historically male-dominated field. Emerging

from centuries of obscurity and isolation, today’s

female masters of clay are challenging the

supremacy of their male contemporaries as

luminaries and independent creative talents.

Given the formality of the ceramics tradition in

Japan, the relative openness characteristic of the

French art world and its lack of gender bias, France

holds great allure for many Japanese women artists.

Of the five women participating in this show, each

has emerged from a distinct background. They have

all traveled diverse roads through their training and

artistic development, often eschewing by choice or

necessity the more traditional routes open to their

male counterparts. They have worked and studied at

such major French ceramic manufacturies as Sevres

and Limoges. Each has made France a major

component in her artistic evolution and life, where

they sought the fair and open training that has

ultimately led to international recognition.

Shown together for the first time, these

groundbreaking ceramists featured in this

exhibition stand on the world stage, with their works

entering major museum collections around the

globe.

Joan B. Mirviss has been a distinguished expert

in Japanese art, specializing in prints, paintings,

screens and ceramics for more than thirty-five years.

She is the leading Western dealer in the field of

modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics, and

from her New York gallery on Madison Avenue,

JOAN B MIRVISS LTD exclusively represents the top

Japanese clay artists. As a widely published, and

highly respected specialist in her field, Mirviss has

advised and built collections for many museums,

major private collectors, and corporations.

Japan’s Foremost Female Ceramic Artists is on View

in New York at Joan B. Mirviss LTD, 39 West 78th

Street, from June 7 – August 3, 2012. �

www.mirviss.com

THE FRENCH CONNECTION: FIVE JAPANESE WOMEN CERAMISTS AND THEIR PASSION FOR FRANCEAn exhibition at the Joan Mirviss Gallery in NewYork explores the dramatically increasingimportance of Japanese women artists onthe global stage.

by Nami Hoppin

T futamura-1.jpg, Futamura Yoshimi Vasque, 2011, Glazed stoneware and porcelain, 13 3/4 x 18 x 17 inchesCourtesy of Joan B Mirviss, Ltd., NY, Photography by Richard Goodbody

Ogawa Machiko, Curved torn vessel with dripping glaze, 2008Porcelain and stoneware with white glaze, 9 1/2 x 22 x 13 inchesCourtesy of Joan B Mirviss, Ltd., NY, Photography by Richard Goodbody

Nagasawa Setsuko, Cylidrical geometric form, 2008Smoke-infused orange and terra-cotta clays8 7/8 x 8 7/8 x 17 1/4 inchesCourtesy of Joan B Mirviss, Ltd., NYPhotography by Alexëi Vassiliev

Katsumata Chieko, Biomorphic sculpture in the shape ofan akoda pumpkin, 2009, Stoneware with blue glaze16 1/8 x 10 5/8 x 13 inches, Courtesy of Joan B Mirviss,Ltd., NY. Photography by Saiki Taku

Sakurai Yasuko, Oval and Vertical Oval, 2010Perforated unglazed porcelain, L: 10 1/4 x 14 1/2 x 10 5/8 inches; R: 14 3/4 x 8/14 inchesCourtesy of Joan B Mirviss, Ltd., NY, Photography by Imamura Yuji